The alligator was trapped and relocated on Friday after it “didn’t realize he was not invited to play with local children,” the Martin County Sheriff’s Department joked on Facebook.

“We seen the gator coming out (of the water) at the two kids," resident Brenda Mike said in an interview with WPEC. “I took a little barbecue sauce cup and threw it. He snapped at the cup, so what was he going to do with the kids?"

While deputies said the was alligator only four or five feet long – considered small for the species – they warned that it still posed a threat.

By the time deputies arrived to the scene, they said the alligator had retreated back into a small ditch.

With the help of a local alligator trackers, deputies were able to tape the alligator’s mouth shut before restraining it and relocating it to an Okeechobee alligator farm, they wrote on Facebook.